Bhullar's big game leads Aggies to ninth-straight victory

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - With 1:45 remaining, and New Mexico State on its way to its ninth-straight victory, Texas-San Antonio intentionally fouled Aggie center Sim Bhullar.

The Roadrunners trailed 72-60 at the time and to be fair, there wasn't much stopping Bhullar on Saturday night.

The 7-foot-5 freshman had a monster game in New Mexico State's 75-62 Western Athletic Conference victory at UTSA on Saturday.

"That's the first time that's happened," said Bhullar, who posted his first career double-double with 17 points, 18 rebounds along with five blocked shots. "Usually they call an intentional foul, and then after a while the refs find out that they are doing it on purpose, and then we get two shots and the ball back."

NMSU (15-8, 9-2 WAC) returns home to play Idaho and Seattle next weekend, giving Bhullar time to rest a foot injury and time for the WAC to figure out another approach in slowing down the big man, who played a season-high 29 minutes Saturday.

"He had a distinct advantage physically like he does most nights," Aggies coach Marvin Menzies said. "He played within himself and was patient."

Bhullar and junior Renaldo Dixon each had five blocks as the Aggies tied the 1978 school record for 12 blocked shots in a game.

Menzies said Bhullar's presence on the court and the Aggies' margin late in the game didn't prompt him to pull Bhullar when the Roadrunners resorted to fouling him.

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"Sim's defense was phenomenal and as a result, what he didn't give us at the free-throw line, he gave us defensively and rebounding and blocked shots," Menzies said.

Bhullar and Dixon will need to continue their production as Menzies said he doesn't expect injured center Tshilidzi Nephawe to return this season.

"If I had to guess, I would have to say that the chances of him coming back this year are slim based on his instability in the thumb and the pain," Menzies said. "It just doesn't look good right now."

With the paint shut off as a viable offensive option, the Roadrunners resorted to shooting 3-pointers (UTSA made six 3s in an 82-62 loss at the Pan American Center in early January). Saturday saw UTSA hit just 3-of-16 two-point field goal attempts in the first half, but the Roadrunners were within nine at intermission after hitting 7 of 10 3-point shots early on.

The final 20 minutes were a different story, however, with UTSA shooting at a 2-for-16 clip from long distance, finishing the night 9-for-26 from beyond the arc (34.6 percent) and shooting just 33 percent from the field for the entire evening.

"Going into the second half, we needed to key in on a couple guys," said Aggies guard Daniel Mullings, who had eight points on Saturday. "I think more of the 3s came from breakdown plays and then long rebounds. While we are trying to run them off .... we got caught slipping. Our rotations got better as the game went on."

Roadrunners point guard Michael Hale pulled UTSA within six, burying a triple off a screen play, with 8:38 remaining in the contest.

Hale scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half before Mullings switched with Terrel de Rouen to take on the defensive assignment. NMSU outscored UTSA 12-5 in the game's final 8:22.

"Terrel got into a little foul trouble in the end and plus, I wanted to guard (Hale)," Mullings said. "He was scoring too much."

UTSA hit five of its first six triples, taking its biggest lead of the game at 19-16 with 10:45 left in the first half, fighting back into things after NMSU scored the first eight points of the contest.

Jordan Sims was 4-for-4 from 3-point range in the first half but finished 4-for-7.

"They had 21 points off the 3 and five points at the free-throw line, so 26 of their 32 points were 3s and free throws," Menzies said. "At the end of the day, I was really happy for the overall numbers. Defensively we did a great job."

NMSU outscored UTSA 19-10 in the last 7:13 of the first half, going up 36-25 with a 14-3 run, sparked off their defense. Mullings picked off a pass in the paint, then fed Sy for a breakaway dunk. Moments later, Sy took it coast-to-coast for a finger roll in traffic.

Although the Roadrunners threatened at times in the second half, Bhullar and the Aggies made it a clean sweep in Texas over the weekend.

"We had a great weekend and got a couple good wins," Bhullar said. "I'm looking forward to these home games in front of our crowd. I hope we get a lot of people there."

Jason Groves can be reached at (575) 541-5459. Follow him on Twitter @jpgroves

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